This invention relates to apparatus for applying protective coatings to photographic films or papers. More specifically, it relates to apparatus for applying protective coatings that are curable by actinic radiation such as ultraviolet light.
Apparatus has heretofore been made available for unwinding, coating, curing and rewinding photographic films or rolls of photographic paper. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,875 issued to Keable on Sep. 23, 1986 which describes such apparatus which uses a coating roller followed by a smoothing roller. The apparatus also includes a splice detector which causes the film to be lifted off of the applicator rollers and also interrupts the rotation of the rollers.
Protective coating compositions for films are commercially available, for example, the type marketed by 3M Company under the trademark Photogard.RTM. and by Dacar Chemical Co. under the trademark Imagegard.RTM.. Ultraviolet light curable coating compositions are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,049,861 issued Sep. 20, 1977 to Nozarre and U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,046 issued May 22, 1979 to Lien et al. The present invention provides improved apparatus for coating and curing these and similar actinic radiation curable compositions on photographic films or paper.